Daimen and I have visited more sites on Pemba, some having the same problems starting seedlings, but one community doing quite well, Shumba Viamboni. However, this community has been running for awhile, and will facilitate training for other communities. The problems of deforestation have become apparent to the community of Shumba Viamboni, in an area close to the village. Twenty or more years ago a piece of land was deforested and without the shade, mulch, and root structures conserving water in the soil, it quickly turned to desert. The people of the surrounding communities, with aid of an NGO in the UK, replanted the site with Acacia, and now 20 years later, a forest has once again emerged. It was great to learn that the community was not going to cut this forest, rather, they were going to conserve it for environmental and ecological purposes.

Desert turned Acacia forest

It is clear that Acacia would grow well in sandy desert-like soils and we have suggested planting Acacia in sandy areas such as Tundua. However, the idea is not being taken well, as an exotic Acacia species has been over planted and mono-planted in the past. Biodiversity is an important consideration when replanting a forest, to insure its longevity in times of drought, flood or other environmental hardships. If no other trees will grow in a site, such as Tundua, indigenous Acacia should be considered as a nurse crop to make the soil more suitable for other tree species to be planted in the future. Acacia sp. will build the soil by adding mulch from fallen leaves, conserving water in the soil through its roots and hydraulic lift (water evaporating from the ground to its leaves creating a cool moist environment under its canopy), and buy adding nitrogen to the soil, a necessary nutrient for tree growth. The trees then can be selectively cut to allow sunlight for other trees (small areas only) or shade tolerant species can be planted.

Another issue that came up as we drove down the winding roads of Pemba, was the cutting of mangroves. This resulted in sea water spilling in on their once productive land, creating salty soil where farming could not continue. As we saw in one area, only black soil remained, as sea adapted plants had not yet moved in, and the soil is nutrient depleted from over farming.

Shumba Kwale Nursery

A visit to the community nurseries of Tundaua and Furaha with Mbarouk has brought us up to speed on the conditions of these two projects.  Both community groups had difficulty raising seedlings much beyond germination early this season, likely due to over-shading in the banda-style nurseries.  The light intensity has been corrected, a simple procedure when the roof is woven palm fronds, and with luck the fresh batch of seedlings will be strong enough to plant out when the rainy season arrives.

Fresh Clove Seeds

Tundaua has also been struggling with a low seedling survival rate in their planting site, due mostly to a harsh site and poor soil conditions.  The community is determined to establish a community forest though and this year has collected Clove tree seeds, which will require two years in nursery before planting out.  The commitment and motivation of this group in spite of the challenges and setbacks they are encountering is inspiring.

Mbarouk demonstrating transplanting

What we intend for Tundaua is to try direct seeding a range of indigenous Acacia species in the harsh site.  Acacia trees are in the Leguminosae family and are in general adapted to poor soils.  Their ability to fix nitrogen and build soil fertility makes them good companions for higher value timber trees.  With luck the Acacia will act as the pioneers at the Tundaua site, preparing the way for Clove trees and others.

Having finished working with Nadukuppam High School (and Pitchandikulam Forest), I have settled into a month of travelling. Being drawn to natural wonders, I visited Hampi, Karnataka for a week. Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage site that covers a huge area surrounding what is now the current town. Like most well know amazing places in India, Hampi is quite busy with tourist and travelers.

Strangely though, as soon as you get out of the main bazaar/town and start to explore, most everyone disappears, and your left surrounded by this fantastic landscape and temple after temple, structure after structure to explore. I rented a scooter and just soaked it all in, climbing giant boulders and visiting the ruins of a 700 year old civilization. It is a magical experience to stumble on one  of these more secluded  structures or rock formations all by yourself. A well enjoyed break from the normal hustle and bustle of India.

I’m now in Delhi. The “Big Hazy”. I came initially to meet a friend of mine, Vikas Gora, an amazing man whom I had the opportunity to spend a week with on my previous trip to India. Vikas heads up Disaster relief for all of India, and has spent a lot of his academic career studying community forestry and how to help coastal and Island communities lessen, mitigate, and manage disaster. We caught up and realized how much our areas of interest are overlapping (I found out  he did his thesis on aspects of community forestry!!) and have laid the ground work for future collaborations.

Getting ready to leave Delhi soon. I’m off to Rishikesh for a dip in the glacial waters near the mouth of the Ganges. A little cold, but I hear it pays great spiritual dividends.   Aside from the photos here, I have uploaded a lot more to our flicker page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/38230891@N06/

Great to hear that Daimen and Estelle have arrived safely In Pemba. Looking forward to finally get a chance to meet all our team in Pemba in person! See you in 2 weeks!

Estelle and I are now on Pemba Island and staying with Mbarouk Mussa Omar, the director of CFI’s projects on Pemba.  Mbarouk and his family are very gracious hosts, and we will be staying with them for a short while until our home nearby is ready for us to move in.

We arrived on Pemba at Mkoani via a fast ferry that left most of the passengers sea sick and glad for the end of the journey.  There we were greeted by Mike Tritchler, a CFI member who has been living and teaching on the island for three years now.  We were fortunate to have arrived in time to take in a climate change education session presented by Mike,  of which I believe he will be posting some photos and details here soon.  Since Mike is living on Pemba, and given his background and interests, he will be heavily involved in the development and direction of the Pemba Sustainability Institute that I mentioned in a previous post.

Tomorrow we will be meeting with the Sheha (leader) of Wangani, a Shehia (group of villages) that is interested in developing community tree planting in their region.  After that we will travel to Tundaua, a Shehia with ongoing projects, to assess the progress of their tree-planting efforts and help troubleshoot some the obstacles they have been encountering.  There is a great profile of Tundaua in the Pemba Island Community Forests section of this website for those interested:  

http://forestsinternational.org/projects/pembatrees/tundaua/

Assalaama aleykum, peace to you.  We are now in Stone Town, Zanzibar, our last stop on our way to Pemba Island.  Pemba is about 50km north of Zanzibar, across the deep Pemba Channel, and we will be travelling there about a week from now.  For the time being we are studying under Mr. Farouk at the Institute of Swahili & Foreign Languages and are finding him to be a great teacher.  We will also be beginning a home-stay tomorrow, which should help us get to know the culture and language a bit better before moving on to Pemba.

Stone Town shoreline

View over Stone Town

Old castle and alleyway

Zanzibar has been in total blackout since early December, due to an aged underwater line that brings power from the mainland. Only those businesses that run generators have power, and even then it is intermittent as people attempt to conserve fuel. Its amazing how conservative  people can be when there is no other choice.  As our Permaculture instructor Rosemarry Morrow said “People don’t change until the cost of staying the same is greater than the cost of change”.  That sounds about right.
I can imagine an Unguja (Zanzibar Island) self-sufficient in its energy and food needs and I think most people here would find that a desirable notion these days. Islands present great opportunities for resilient self-sufficiency, a good example being Cuba.  And the climate change scenarios presented by the world’s scientists provide compelling support of increased regional solidarity as well, if for no other reason than disaster preparedness. All it takes besides the willingness of the people is a little bit of knowledge, there are no excuses after that really.

Narrow alleys in Stone Town

Estelle exploring streets of Stone Town

Traditional home entrance

On Pemba the need for resilient self-sufficiency is even greater than here given its relative remoteness and higher population density.  A part of the vision that CFI shares with citizens of Pemba is the development of the island’s first post secondary institution, tentatively named the Pemba Sustainability Institute.  This institute would help to develop the knowledge and skills necessary  to create a sustainable culture on Pemba, which could then act as a model for the region.  If you’d like to learn more about the Pemba Sustainability Institute please visit:   http://communityforests.iglooprojects.com/
We are actively seeking volunteers with relevant expertise who would like to contribute to the development of curriculum, in the areas of ecological forestry and advanced agriculture for the tropics in particular.

Boy on school break

Neighbourhood

Carmel Kilkenny of Radio Canada International’s The Link interviewed Community Forests International’s Executive Director, Jeff Schnurr, to find out about the organization’s tree planting efforts in Pemba, Tanzania. Click below to listen or click here to download an mp3 of the interview.

The interview concluded a busy couple of weeks for Community Forests International that also included a visit to the Chignecto Naturalist Club in Sackville, New Bruswick, pictured below. Click here to read a summary of the presentation, published in the Sackville Tribune Post.

Presentation to Chignecto Naturalist Club

We are now in Nairobi, Kenya, awaiting our flight to Zanzibar on the 3rd. While here we hope to visit Uruhu Park and Freedom Corner, made famous by Kenyan political and environmental activist Wangari Maathi. The first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (2004), one of Wangari’s many achievements was to developed the Pan African Green Belt Network and assist women in planting over 20 million trees on public land and farms. She is a tree planter after our own hearts!

If time allows we will also visit the Nairobi Arboretum, to get familiar first-hand with some of the native and exotic tree species of East Africa. The Arboretum is over 100 years old and in its early years was used for trials of introduced trees. Invasive species are a problem here in East Africa and on Pemba, it would be good to see the long-term impacts of exotics in the Arboretum and learn what techniques, if any, are used to control them there. I am also currently putting the finishing touches on a list of multipurpose indigenous trees that I hope to introduce to CFI’s community nurseries on Pemba, and I might find some useful information from the staff at the Arboretum as at least a few of the tree species there are local to Pemba.

 Now is probably a good time to start describing Pemba’s forests. Starting around the mid-nineteenth century on Pemba native forests were cleared for clove plantation, and so little of the unique primary forest survives. Today the Ngezi Forest Reserve (1440 Hectares) in the Northwest is almost the last stand of indigenous forest. As much of the surrounding forest was cleared and reforested with a mix of native and exotic trees, the exotic species have affected the Ngezi forest area. The most damaging of the exotics is a species known as Msisi (Muesopsis eminii). Msisi is from the African mainland and its aggressive nature suppresses the growth of indigenous trees. Staff at the reserve have had success in ringing and uprooting young Msisi to allow the indigenous trees to regenerate, which is encouraging because the preservation of Ngezi is invaluable for Pembans. I am confident that Ngezi will be a great source of seed and inspiration for CFI’s community tree nurseries, and that countless benefits will be had by imitating its structure and composition in community reforestation efforts.